WASHINGTON—A growing number of congressional Republicans want to use a contentious budget procedure to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, according to senior lawmakers and aides involved in discussions over the strategy.

A final decision could be weeks if not months away, but Republican lawmakers and aides say there is broad enthusiasm for using the process known as reconciliation to try to repeal the 2010 health-care law and potentially replace it with a GOP alternative. Another contender, looking less likely now, is using the process for a tax overhaul.

“There is some skepticism about using it for taxes because we’d actually like to get [a tax deal] with the presidential signature,” Senate Majority Whip
John Cornyn
(R., Texas) said Thursday.

Reconciliation offers lawmakers a way to pass certain measures tied to the budget with just a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 votes most bills need to clear the chamber’s procedural hurdles. That makes it a tempting tool for newly empowered Republicans to use to push through a GOP wish-list of policies that might otherwise stall in the face of Democratic opposition.

This year, Republicans, who now controlling both chambers of Congress, have considered using reconciliation to quickly pass and send to President
Barack Obama
one of their top priorities such as a health law repeal or tax code rewrite. Republicans control 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats, so they otherwise need the votes of at least 6 Democrats to clear procedural hurdles, which generally require 60 votes.

Because the use of reconciliation is so divisive, it is most likely to be used to pass legislation that is partisan and more likely to draw a veto threat from Mr. Obama. That is not a process likely to result in striking a deal on a tax overhaul with Mr. Obama, some Republicans said.

“You’d like to get a big vote for tax reform,” said Sen.
John Thune
of South Dakota, a member of Senate GOP leadership. “If we’re doing it with reconciliation, it probably means it’s unlikely to get a presidential signature.”

The reconciliation process, which has its roots in the 1974 budget law, enables lawmakers to consider certain budget-related measures without the threat of a filibuster. While it was designed to reconcile tax and spending legislation with the overall annual budget, it came over time to be used to enact more overtly political agendas.

If Republicans target the health-care law, Mr. Obama is certain to veto any effort the GOP-controlled Congress makes to repeal one of his signature legislative accomplishments. But Republicans have made seeking to undo the law one of their top political goals, given its importance to rank-and-file lawmakers and the party’s base.

“When you look through the conference, I think to a person we’re very concerned about Obamacare,” said Sen.
John Boozman
(R., Ark.), “We’d like to use all the tools that we have to try and get rid of it and certainly that would be probably the only way we could do it in the Senate and actually bring it to the president’s desk.”

Forcing Mr. Obama to veto a repeal is seen as symbolically valuable as the GOP seeks to demonstrate to Republican voters that they can use their control of both chambers to follow through on campaign promises. An overhaul of the tax code wouldn’t carry the same political weight.

And Republicans see reconciliation as a fitting strategy to undo the health law, which was passed through the same process five years ago, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.

Republicans will decide whether and how to use reconciliation this spring when the Senate and House Budget Committee chairmen draft the GOP budget. Lawmakers can include reconciliation directions setting revenue or spending goals for specific committees as part of their budget resolution. One wild card is that reconciliation can also be used to raise the federal borrowing limit, which will be reinstated later this year.

One factor that could affect Republicans’ strategy is how the Supreme Court rules later this year on whether consumers can receive subsidies through the Affordable Care Act for insurance purchased in a federal exchange. The specifics of the GOP strategy for repealing the law could shift based on how much of the law the court leaves in place, aides said.

“I want to do everything I can to make sure that we can repeal and replace the health-care law,” said Sen.
John Barrasso
(R., Wyo.), who is leading the Senate effort to develop the GOP response to the court decision. “I am looking forward to the Supreme Court decision because it looks like that may be a big part of it,” he said.